§8.6.21τὴν δὲ τοποθεσίαν τῆς πόλεως, ἐξ ὧν Ἱερώνυμός τε εἴρηκε καὶ Εὔδοξος καὶ ἄλλοι καὶ αὐτοὶ δὲ εἴδομεν νεωστὶ ἀναληφθείσης ὑπὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων, τοιάνδε εἶναι συμβαίνει.
The topography of the city, from what Hieronymus and Eudoxus and others have said, and from what we ourselves have recently seen since its restoration by the Romans, is as follows.
ὄρος ὑψηλὸν ὅσον τριῶν ἥμισυ σταδίων ἔχον τὴν κάθετον, τὴν δʼ ἀνάβασιν καὶ τριάκοντα σταδίων, εἰς ὀξεῖαν τελευτᾷ κορυφήν· καλεῖται δὲ Ἀκροκόρινθος, οὗ τὸ μὲν πρὸς ἄρκτον μέρος ἐστὶ τὸ μάλιστα ὄρθιον, ὑφʼ ᾧ κεῖται ἡ πόλις ἐπὶ τραπεζώδους ἐπιπέδου χωρίου πρὸς αὐτῇ τῇ ῥίζῃ τοῦ Ἀκροκορίνθου.
A high mountain with a vertical height of about three and a half stadia, and an ascent of as much as thirty stadia, ends in a sharp peak; it is called Acrocorinth, and its northern part is the most precipitous, under which lies the city on a table-like flat site, right at the very foot of the Acrocorinth.
αὐτῆς μὲν οὖν τῆς πόλεως ὁ κύκλος καὶ τετταράκοντα σταδίων ὑπῆρχεν· ἐτετείχιστο δʼ ὅσον τῆς πόλεως γυμνὸν ἦν τοῦ ὄρους· συμπεριείληπτο δὲ τῷ περιβόλῳ τούτῳ καὶ τὸ ὄρος αὐτὸ ὁ Ἀκροκόρινθος ᾗ δυνατὸν ἦν τειχισμὸν δέξασθαι, καὶ ἡμῖν ἀναβαίνουσιν ἦν δῆλα τὰ ἐρείπια τῆς σχοινίας· ὥσθʼ ἡ πᾶσα περίμετρος ἐγίνετο περὶ πέντε καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα σταδίων.
Now the circumference of the city itself used to be forty stadia, and it was fortified with walls as far as it was unprotected by the mountain; and this enclosing wall also included the mountain itself, the Acrocorinth, wherever it was possible to admit fortification, and as we went up, the ruins of the wall-line were visible; so that the entire perimeter came to about eighty-five stadia.
ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων μερῶν ἧττον ὄρθιόν ἐστι τὸ ὄρος, ἀνατέταται μέντοι ἐνθένδε ἱκανῶς καὶ περίοπτόν ἐστιν.
From the other sides the mountain is less steep, yet it rises high from there too and is conspicuous all around.
ἡ μὲν οὖν κορυφὴ ναΐδιον ἔχει Ἀφροδίτης, ὑπὸ δὲ τῇ κορυφῇ τὴν Πειρήνην εἶναι συμβαίνει κρήνην, ἔκρυσιν μὲν οὐκ ἔχουσαν μεστὴν δʼ ἀεὶ διαυγοῦς καὶ ποτίμου ὕδατος.
Now the peak has a small temple of Aphrodite, and below the peak is the spring Peirene, which has no outflow but is always full of clear and drinkable water.
φασὶ δὲ καὶ ἐνθένδε καὶ ἐξ ἄλλων ὑπονόμων τινῶν φλεβίων συνθλίβεσθαι τὴν πρὸς τῇ ῥίζῃ τοῦ ὄρους κρήνην ἐκρέουσαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ὥσθʼ ἱκανῶς ἀπʼ αὐτῆς ὑδρεύεσθαι.
And they say that from here and from certain other subterranean veinlets the spring at the foot of the mountain is pressed out and flows down into the city, so that it is sufficiently supplied with water from it.
ἔστι δὲ καὶ φρεάτων εὐπορία κατὰ τὴν πόλιν, λέγουσι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὸν Ἀκροκόρινθον· οὐ μὴν ἡμεῖς γε εἴδομεν.
There is also an abundance of wells in the city, and they say there are some on the Acrocorinth too, though we ourselves did not see them.
τοῦ δʼ οὖν Εὐριπίδου φήσαντος οὕτως
"
ἥκω περίκλυστον προλιποῦσʼ Ἀκροκόρινθον,
ἱερὸν ὄχθον, πόλιν Ἀφροδίτας,
"
τὸ περίκλυστον ἤτοι κατὰ βάθους δεκτέον, ἐπεὶ καὶ φρέατα καὶ ὑπόνομοι λιβάδες διήκουσι διʼ αὐτοῦ, ἢ τὸ παλαιὸν ὑποληπτέον τὴν Πειρήνην ἐπιπολάζειν καὶ κατάρρυτον ποιεῖν τὸ ὄρος.
At any rate, when Euripides says: 'I am come, having left Acrocorinth, washed on all sides, the sacred hill, the city of Aphrodite,' the word 'washed on all sides' must be taken either as referring to the depths, since wells and subterranean channels run through it, or we must assume that in ancient times Peirene welled up to the surface and watered the mountain.
ἐνταῦθα δέ φασι πίνοντα τὸν Πήγασον ἁλῶναι ὑπὸ Βελλεροφόντου, πτηνὸν ἵππον ἐκ τοῦ τραχήλου τοῦ Μεδούσης ἀναπαλέντα κατὰ τὴν γοργοτομίαν· τὸν δʼ αὐτόν φασι καὶ τὴν Ἵππου κρήνην ἀναβαλεῖν ἐν τῷ Ἑλικῶνι πλήξαντα τῷ ὄνυχι τὴν ὑποῦσαν πέτραν.
And here, they say, Pegasus was caught by Bellerophon while drinking—the winged horse that sprang from the neck of Medusa when her head was cut off; and they say that the same horse also caused the Hippocrene (Horse's Spring) to rise on Helicon by striking with his hoof the rock that lay beneath.
ὑπὸ δὲ τῇ Πειρήνῃ τὸ Σισύφειόν ἐστιν, ἱεροῦ τινος ἢ βασιλείου λευκῶν λίθων πεποιημένου διασῶζον ἐρείπια οὐκ ὀλίγα.
Below Peirene is the Sisypheum, which preserves no small remains of a temple or palace built of white stone.
ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς κορυφῆς πρὸς ἄρκτον μὲν ἀφορᾶται ὅ τε Παρνασσὸς καὶ ὁ Ἑλικών, ὄρη ὑψηλὰ καὶ νιφόβολα, καὶ ὁ Κρισαῖος κόλπος ὑποπεπτωκὼς ἀμφοτέροις, περιεχόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς Φωκίδος καὶ τῆς Βοιωτίας καὶ τῆς Μεγαρίδος καὶ τῆς ἀντιπόρθμου τῇ Φωκίδι Κορινθίας καὶ Σικυωνίας·
And from the summit, looking towards the north, one can see both Parnassus and Helicon, high mountains covered with snow, and the Crisaean Gulf lying below both of them, enclosed by Phocis, Boeotia, Megaris, and by the Corinthian and Sicyonian territories on the opposite side of the strait from Phocis.
πρὸς ἑσπέραν δὲ ὑπέρκειται δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων τὰ καλούμενα Ὄνεια ὄρη διατείνοντα μέχρι Βοιωτίας καὶ Κιθαιρῶνος ἀπὸ τῶν Σκιρωνίδων πετρῶν, ἀπὸ τῆς παρὰ ταύτας ὁδοῦ πρὸς τὴν Ἀττικήν.
Towards the west—but above all these lie the so-called Oneia Mountains, extending to Boeotia and Cithaeron from the Scironian Rocks, and from the road that runs along them towards Attica.